By DOUG DONNELLY

HUDSON – Whiteford baseball coach Terry Pant must have felt like he was the only one in Hudson’s ballpark Tuesday that saw Onsted’s shortstop standing in the basepath of Bobcat base runner.

Whiteford strung together three straight hits in the second inning in Tuesday’s Division 3 pre-district game against Onsted. What was potentially a big inning came to a halt on back-to-back plays that killed any hopes of a Whiteford rally in the 4-1 loss to the Wildcats.

Caden Schroyer led off the second with a single, followed by a Luke Henegar double, putting runners on second and third base with no outs. Avery Cousino stepped to the plate and hit a sharp single to left, scoring Schroyer. As Henegar started from second to third, the Onsted shortstop was right in his path. The two briefly appeared grab ahold of one another. The delay meant Henegar couldn’t advance any further than second base.

After Rylan Joerin popped out to second base for the first out of the inning Henegar was caught trying to steal home on a close play at the plate where the Onsted catcher had to reach high to grab the throw, then come down and make the tag. Whiteford coaches argued Onsted starting pitcher Xavier Gibbs had balked on the throw to the plate.

The Bobcats eventually put another runner on base in the inning, but Gibbs got the next Bobcat batter out on a strikeout, ending the inning with just one run in.

“It completely changed the complexion of the inning,” Pant said after the game. “If he rounds third, the leftfielder has to at least make a throw. Going up 2-0 or 3-0 there would have been huge. That’s baseball. I told the kids sometimes that’s how things go.”

Pant brought up the issue with the umpire, who dismissed any notion of interference.

“They said our guy had to go around (the shortstop),” Pant said.

Onsted made use of eight hits the rest of the game to score four runs and put the game away. Gibbs struck out nine and limited Whiteford to the one run. Lucas Arnold came on in the seventh inning and gave up two sharp line drives to the leftfielder, Talan Hutchinson, who snagged both.

“They are a solid team,” Pant said. “We knew that when we got the district draw.”

Henegar had two hits for the Bobcats. Whiteford put two runners on with two outs in the fifth inning, but never had a runner past second base the rest of the game.

Nate Stevens started for the Bobcats, going five innings and striking out three. Two of the runs he allowed were earned. Onsted also scored a run in the sixth inning with runners on first and third and the Bobcats tried to catch the Onsted runner at second in a run down.

Jack Tessier had three hits and Gibbs two for Onsted. Tessier had two RBI.

Whiteford finishes the second 22-10.

“It was a fun season,” Pant said. “The kids have been competitive with everyone we played all season. We did a lot of good things.”

Onsted will advance to Saturday’s Division 3 district, also at Hudson. None of the other teams in the bracket have a winning record.